Math test mistake means Michigan students will get new MEAP scores

6:44 PM, May 16, 2013

Detroit Free Press file photo

Detroit Free Press Education Writer

Students across Michigan will be getting new MEAP math scores after a snafu in the Michigan Department of Education caused some questions to be included on the tests that state officials had promised schools wouldn’t be included.

The mistake is forcing the MDE to rescore the MEAP math exams in grades 4, 7 and 8, as well as the MEAP-Access exam — for special education students — in grades 3-8.

When new reports are sent to schools by the end of June, some parents might notice higher scores, some lower, for their children. The rescoring, which will involve removing the mistakenly included items, also is expected to impact overall school scores.

Students took the exams in the fall. Scores were released in February. Shortly after the release, MDE began hearing from local educators who noticed some of the questions on the exams involved standards the state had said would no longer be tested. Many teachers had been told “you no longer need to teach these specific skills,” said Joseph Martineau, deputy superintendent for accountability services at the MDE.

Michigan is transitioning from its current content standards for schools to the Common Core Standards, a set of rigorous expectations established by nearly 50 states for what students need to learn in order to be ready for college and careers. In the process, it is phasing out certain things being taught in classes now, to be replaced by Common Core standards in English language arts and math. But some were added to the MEAP exam.

Martineau said the overall impact will be minimal, but he said the state had to make the fix.

“We wanted to make sure we were honoring the commitment to the schools,” Martineau said.

Judy Pritchett, chief academic officer for the Macomb Intermediate School District, said the mistake illustrates the complexity of testing. “Especially when you’re dealing with high-stakes exams,” Pritchett said.

Robert Floden, codirector of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University, said the rescoring “shows me how seriously the people at the MDE take what they’re doing. This will be a lot of work to rescore these things.”

Martineau said he’s glad the MDE is able to make the fix before the state’s new accountability system — which will feature scorecards for every school in the state — becomes public this summer.

“If we had to rerun accountability, it would be a big deal,” Martineau said.

Jan Ellis, spokeswoman for the MDE, said the department would absorb the cost to rescore the exams. She and Martineau said they did not know what the cost will be.